Celia Hammond (Curtin, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to rise today to speak in favour of this government's Recycling And Waste Reduction Bill 2020 and associated bills. I do so knowing the people in my electorate of Curtin care deeply about recycling. They want to be confident that, when they put things in a recycling bin or deliver them to a collection centre, they will be repurposed effectively.

We're all aware there have been shameful cases where—when we thought we were doing the right thing, putting our rubbish into different waste bins or taking them to certain drop-off points—we've found out later that they've been dumped in landfill or sent overseas for somebody else to manage. This has to stop. Likewise we need to stop throwing away millions of tonnes of waste. We need to take our own steps to make sure we are aware of what we are using and what we are wasting, and we need to support the schemes and initiatives that reduce our usage of products which can't be effectively repurposed or recycled.

These bills are going to establish a legislative framework to reduce the environmental and human health impacts of products and reduce waste from products and waste material through two key measures. The first of these implements the decision in March 2020—the decision of the Commonwealth, state and territory governments to ban the export of waste glass, plastic, paper and tyres. The second replaces and improves the existing Product Stewardship Act to ensure that those who design, manufacture and distribute products take greater responsibility for the impacts of those products on the environment.

The first element, the banning of the export of waste, is rolling the ban out over a period of time. Mixed plastics are going to be banned from 1 July 2021. Whole used tyres will be banned from 1 December 2021. Single resin or polymer plastics will be banned from 2022, and mixed and unsorted paper and cardboard will be banned from 1 July 2024. The bill is going to implement the waste export ban through a licensing and declaration scheme, which will ensure that waste material is value added and safe for human health and the environment in the receiving countries. It maximises the ability of our waste management and recycling sector to recover and re-manufacture waste materials, creating jobs here in Australia. There's going to be criminal offences and civil liability penalties for people who contravene the act.

The second part of these bills is focused on product stewardship, which is aimed at assisting all of us to reduce our waste by getting our manufacturers and our industry to embrace the circular economy principles and to lead the charge on proper product stewardship. Product stewardship, in simple terms, requires manufacturers and industry to consider the entire life cycle of a product and not just thinking about it ending at the point of sale about what happens to it after it is sold. The principles of a circular economy is one where we can trust that the products we use today can, at the end of their life, value-add to the products we will buy tomorrow, so that when we buy these products in the future we won't be creating additional drain on our natural resources and we won't be adding to the mountains of waste in landfills, oceans and native environments. This part of the bills takes on board many of the recommendations that were contained in the review of the Product Stewardship Act.

The bills provide a framework for three kinds of product stewardship scheme: voluntary, co-regulatory and mandatory. A voluntary product stewardship scheme drives action to reduce the negative impact on the environment of waste from products and materials—so it's a voluntary one that people within a sector can sign up to. Co-regulatory product stewardship schemes are a combination of industry action and government regulation. Government sets the minimum standards, or the minimum outcomes and operational requirements, while industry has some discretion about how those requirements and outcomes are to be achieved. The final layer—the most onerous, if you like—is the mandatory product stewardship scheme, which can require a person, such as a manufacturer, importer or distributor of a product, to take specific actions in relation to a product. Mandatory requirements may be imposed where there's a high level of environmental or human health risk.

The bills are going to strengthen the minister's priority list, adding clear time frames and recommended actions to increase transparency around listed products. Again, there are going to be new offences and civil penalty provisions related to product stewardship, which will strengthen efforts to manage the impacts of different products and materials on the environment.

This legislation is only one part of a whole lot of new measures that this government is taking to transform our recycling industry and help transition Australia to a truly circular economy. The government has made targeted investments to build a stronger Australian recycling industry and create more jobs. There are the Recycling Modernisation Fund and the National Product Stewardship Investment Fund. There's money that has been invested to implement the Commonwealth's commitments under our National Waste Policy Action Plan. Money is being invested to improve national waste data collection. Money is being invested for a special round of co-op research centre projects to focus on recycling. The government is also strengthening Commonwealth procurement guidelines so that any Commonwealth agency undertaking procurement considers environmental sustainability and the use of recycled content when determining value for money. By using our own purchasing power, we can generate demand and encourage innovation. We're also, properly, working with the states and territories to develop national standards and specifications for the use of recycled content in a broad range of capital works projects.

As I said at the outset, the people of Curtin are deeply passionate about recycling. There are numerous volunteer organisations working at a grassroots level on initiatives focused on ensuring our natural environment is preserved, enhanced and, where necessary, restored for the benefit of us and for the benefit of future generations. I refer to the many 'friends of' groups, such as Friends of Shenton Bushland and Friends of Lake Claremont, and the coast care groups: Cottesloe Coastcare Association, Cambridge Coastcare. These are all run by volunteers. Not only do they run the organisation; they do volunteer weeding and volunteer management of lots of beautiful environmental areas in my electorate. This work is absolutely critical. What they often report is that the amount of plastics they find in this beautiful, pristine environment is absolutely huge—monumental. They take steps to bring the community along with them to help get rid of this rubbish, this waste.

I would also say that most, if not all, of the schools in my electorate have their own dedicated recycling and waste management programs. Some of the schools—at last count it was over 62 but I imagine the number's much higher now—work with Greenbatch, which is a local organisation that looks at waste as a valuable resource. It's building WA's first plastics reprocessing plant to reduce the amount of plastic that is being sent to landfill. Greenbatch partners with schools around WA to collect plastics for the future plant. Currently, they are turning plastics into 3D printing filament, which they then give back to the schools for their use. So that really is the circular economy.

Other schools have developed their own initiatives. One is the Moerlina School in Claremont, which was recently successful in being awarded a $15,000 communities environment grant to create a child driven community partnership to utilise rubbish as a resource, focusing on the collection and repurposing of plastic waste.

I heard the member for Perth talking before about local councils. I think he mentioned one in my electorate, but he may not be aware—and I have to give a big sing-out to the local councils in my electorate because of this—that five of them have come together, worked together with regard to waste and set up the Western Metropolitan Regional Council. This actually looks after the waste of five local councils, and another one is now joining. The west metro regional council doesn't just offer a service to collect and dispose of recyclable material for people, though they do that and do it brilliantly; they collect absolutely everything: fridges, tyres, cartridges—absolutely everything. They also undertake a significant community education role. So they work with schools, but they also work with the public at large, holding sessions where they teach people about working out what plastic is what, because there are different types of plastics. They want to do more, so they're actually excited about the opportunity to get additional funding to invest more in the recycling space.

When it comes to recycling, we even have a local organisation that recycles stationery. I've spoken in this House before about this organisation. It's called Give Write and it was set up by Anita Bell; her husband, Jeff; and her son, Ben. Ben, you're about to start your exams in WA, so best of luck. They've had a pretty troubling time this year with Anita being ill. They set up this organisation about 18 months ago now. They collect an extraordinary amount of leftover stationery. At the end of the school year, as any parent would know, your kids come home and a lot of stuff you bought for them at the beginning of the year hasn't actually been touched. Maybe it's just my kids! Give Write collects all this. It gets all the schools. I now have a Give Write bin in my office for people to drop off their unused stationery. It gets collected, and then Give Write uses volunteers to repackage all of this and send it to kids in schools who don't actually have the resources to buy all the stationery they need. So it's recycling pencils, pens, notebooks, notebooks—anything you can imagine. They clean it, they make sure it works and then they put it in packages. Again, that is an example of recycling that is being embraced within my community.

By way of concluding, I would say that these bills help us. We've got a commitment to recycling. We have a commitment to managing our waste. These bills will help us all take that step further and a long way down the path, because these bills regulate. They expand the capacity of industry. It's also about investing in new technology and expanding the markets for recycling and for recycled products. These reforms are really important for our country both here and now and for future generations, and I'm very happy to commend these bills to the House.

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